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The 39-year-old legend made it official yesterday during a press conference in his home west of downtown Orlando, Fla.

With his mother, Lucille, and father, Sgt. Philip Harrison, sitting in the front row and his college coach, Dale Brown of LSU, seated next to him on stage, O’Neal waxed poetic about an NBA career that is guaranteed to bring a Hall of Fame induction.

“I never thought this day would come,” O’Neal said upon taking his seat on stage. “Father Time has finally caught up to Shaquille O’Neal.

O’Neal played in just 37 games during his final and only season with the Celtics due to a littany of injuries including his currently damaged Achilles tendon. His deteriorating health also limited him to the extent that he played in 70 games only once since the 2004-05 season.

He said he announced his retirement now so that general manager Danny Ainge and the Celtics could re-load on bigs.

“I thought it was good business to let Danny know right away so he can go get some young talent,” O’Neal said. “It’s a beautiful organization and they still got a lot left. I didn’t want to get the (Achilles) surgery and go through the nine-month recovery and keep everyone waiting again.”

O’Neal missed the Celtics’ entire first-round playoff series against the New York Knicks and played in just two games in the Eastern Conference semifinals against the Miami Heat, totaling 12 minutes.

O’Neal said he took the Celtics’ 4-1 series loss to the Heat especially hard because he was unable to contribute.

“After we lost I was really down on myself because I went up there with one mission only and I kind of felt like I let the city down,” O’Neal said. “I had tears in my eyes. I tried and I just couldn’t pull it off.”

During a lengthy list of thank-you’s, O’Neal was gracious to everyone from team executives to ballboys. But when it came to coaches, he was sure to single out LSU’s Brown, former Lakers coach Phil Jackson and current Celtics coach Doc Rivers.

“Phil Jackson was the one who taught me how to really focus, and really concentrate on what’s going on and get to that championship level,” O’Neal said. “Playing for Doc Rivers this year was very special because we had a lot of talent on the team, but Doc Rivers always, always focused on the team.”

O’Neal played for six teams — the Magic, Lakers, Heat, Suns, Cavaliers and Celtics — during his distinguished career. He won four NBA championships, was named to 15 All-Star teams, was the 1999-2000 NBA MVP, a three-time Finals MVP and finished his career fifth on the NBA’s all-time scoring list with 28,596 points.

Don’t count on Shaq pulling a Brett Favre and coming back to the league in the next few years. He said he’s comfortable with his legacy the way it is.

“I definitely won’t be back,” O’Neal said. “Towards the end of my career, I started getting a little bit selfish. Wilt’s (Chamberlain) at 31,000 (points) and I’m at 28,000. So, if I had like 100 points fewer than him, I would come back to pass him up and put me as the most dominant player in the world. But I’m about three years away.”

He joked that his biggest regret is missing all those dreaded free throws.

O’Neal said he’s honored to end his career being mentioned in the same breath as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Chamberlain and Bill Russell.

“I’ve heard my name next to Bill Russell, next to Kareem, next to Wilt Chamberlain,” O’Neal said. “Even if I didn’t reach my full potential, I can look at my mother and father and say we made it.”

O’Neal also sought to squash remnants of previous “feuds” he had with former teammates, including Kobe Bryant and Dwyane Wade. He said it was all about keeping his teammates motivated to win a title.

“I was task-driven and the task was to win championships,” O’Neal said of his mentality with teammates. “I pushed Kobe’s buttons and he pushed my buttons, and we were able to win three out of four. The same thing with D-Wade .Ã¢â‚¬â€°.Ã¢â‚¬â€°. It was all business. A lot of people think we hated each other, but it was all about the task.”

O’Neal has many different avenues he could go in retirement. First thing on his list is to get surgery on his Achilles. He also said he plans on finishing his Ph.D. from Barry University in human-resource development.

He extinguished any speculation about coaching in the NBA, but said he was interested in ownership.

Given his past in law enforcement, he said he was also interested in becoming the under-sheriff in Lake County, Fla.

But O’Neal’s most likely destination could be the route of Charles Barkley and Magic Johnson as an NBA analyst for a network.

“I will miss you, but I do plan on entertaining you for the next 19 years, whether it’s TNT, ESPN, CNN or whoever wants to hire me.”